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Scott Redding Moves to MotoGP Next Year with Gresini Honda

We introduced you to Scott Redding a couple of months ago, suggesting the Moto2 points leader could be moving on to MotoGP next year at the tender age of 21 (he is currently 20) to take up the fight against rookie phenom Marc Marquez (Honda). Earlier today, it was announced that Redding is in fact riding a MotoGP bike next year, having signed a two-year deal with Gresini Honda that will see him spend year one aboard the new, production Honda RCV1000R, before an expected move in year two to a full prototype, full factory Honda (on par with the Repsol machines).

Redding currently has a 21 point lead in the Moto2 championship while riding for the Marc VDS team. Interestingly, he is frequently getting the better of Pol Espargaro, who is also moving to MotoGP with the Tech 3 Yamaha team as Cal Crutchlow’s replacement. As previously reported, Crutchlow is moving to the Factory Ducati squad next year as Nicky Hayden’s replacement.

If you watched Marquez battle Espargaro in Moto2 last year, you could conclude that Redding will be capable of performing at a high level in MotoGP. The big question mark for Redding in his rookie year is the performance of the new sub-factory Honda machine.

14 Comments

Better watch what you say…a couple of months ago when I questioned Americas road racing propects and lamented the pitiful results of Hayden and Edwards I was blasted and called everything but a Benedict Arnold. It got ugly. Not even Norm defended me and he’s used to ugly.lol

And the American boys buy a chopper and go to Sturgis, go figure. We have no feeder conduit in this country for up and coming racers. It doesn’t seem that many Americans are interested in bike racing, judging by the attendance at our Moto GP races. Hence, we’re reaping the benefits of what we’ve sown—ZERO. Moto 2 is great racing and that’s where racers like Redding grow up, some Marc fellow too.

American road racing seems pretty insular compared to riders coming up in Europe. For example, Ben Spies won three straight AMA Superbike championships before he got a chance at World Superbike (and won the title in his first year). I’m sure Josh Hayes would be right near the top too, if he ever got the chance (probably too old now). In Europe, if a young guy shows talent, he’s given the chance on an international series almost right away. Here, they stay in AMA too long and eventually become yesterday’s news. But there are extremely talented guys like Cameron Beaubier and Joe Roberts (remember that name- 16 years old, won every AMA supersport race he entered) that would be competitive in a series like Moto2 imo, if they got a good ride.

Yes, I realize that the flag is on his helmet and he’s British but many others do not.
It would have been correct form to announce where’s he’s from when an announcement this huge is made about the young man’s career without having to reference other articles or solve a picture puzzle.
A small oversight, but an oversight non-theless.